Ordinary World
by Laurus Nobilis
Summary: Renge and Nekozawa: uncommon people in an ordinary world. Post anime.


**Ordinary World**

Renge loved Paris. She didn't care how cliché it might sound: it was a romantic, magical city, and nothing would ever change her mind about that. In a place like that, it was easy to pretend she was inside of a story, a love story hopefully, like she used to do when she was younger. She was a bit too old for certain hobbies now, and more than a bit too busy… but her thoughts were still her own, and there was nothing wrong with a little daydreaming, really. She liked to watch the people around her and come up with their stories, trying to guess what exciting romance awaited them or what deep dark secrets they kept.

She liked to think about herself, too. One day, she would meet the love of her life in Paris. She was sure of that. He might be the dashing and princely type, or perhaps dark and mysterious – she wasn't sure about that yet, but at least she had already figured out that the_ megane_ type wasn't meant for her. In any case, she would know him when she saw him. They would bump into each other, as she walked distracted and lost in her own thoughts, and then he would gently lean down to help her up and she would look into the eyes of her True Love.

Of course, the only people she'd bumped into so far were of the boring, ordinary kind, regular men and women who were too hurried to look where they were walking and rarely stopped to apologize. But she didn't lose hope. It would happen, she was sure, when she least expected it.

She was lost in those thoughts, paying more attention to the old-fashioned buildings around her than to the people in front of her, when she did bump into someone. (That daydreaming thing always worked.) She didn't fall, just stumbled a bit, and straightened herself up to look right into the eyes of a blond, blue-eyed, handsome young man. This was it. This had to be the one… or so she thought for half a second, until he pushed past her with a contemptuous look and nearly made her fall for real this time.

But she didn't hit the floor. Someone caught her by the shoulders, and she heard a quiet voice behind her…

"Now, we can't have you getting hurt, can we?"

"Get your hands _off_ me, you creep!" she snapped, standing up almost with a jump. She vaguely thought that the stranger was meaning to be helpful, but really, she couldn't be blamed for her first reaction being like that after she'd been treated so badly, and with this new person choosing such unfortunate wording. Didn't he realize how _wrong_ he sounded?

Probably not, she thought, when she finally turned around and saw him standing there. The first thing she noticed was that he looked quite confused. Then she got distracted by everything else. She could tell that he was handsome, even though she couldn't really see his face – it was obscured by sunglasses, and a dark, wide brimmed hat that made him look like he should have been living decades earlier. He still managed to look elegant, however, with that classic (and obviously expensive) black suit. There was something odd about him, and yet he seemed… a little familiar.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, it was him who spoke first.

"… Houshakuji-san?" he asked, lowering his glasses the slightest bit. That hint of blue eyes was enough for everything else to fall into place.

"Nekozawa-san!" Renge exclaimed triumphantly, proud of her discovery. "Well, _that_ explains the creepyness."

He didn't seem offended by that at all. On the contrary, he reacted with a grin – not as wild as she remembered, perhaps, but still familiar enough.

"You haven't changed the slightest bit."

o O o

He invited her for a coffee, and Renge found herself agreeing without a second thought. They had never been close, and they hadn't seen each other in a long time, not since high school, but there was still something pleasant about meeting someone from her old life in Japan. Besides, she had to admit it, she was curious.

He had changed. For the better, she thought. And a not so tiny part of her wondered how much of that was, directly or indirectly, her doing. She had made a great effort to make him behave like a remotely normal person, after all. It hadn't had much of an effect at the time, but perhaps some of it had rubbed off on him in the long term…

Then again, as she soon realized, some things never changed at all. He had chosen a café on the same block where they'd met. It was fancy and expensive, yes, but the lighting was terrible. As if that wasn't enough, he went straight for a table in the darkest corner – and grimaced when he saw it was occupied. He had to settle for the _other_ corner, the one by a window. With a nearly imperceptible sigh, he drew the curtain (though not completely; his thoughtfulness surprised her) and sat as close to the wall as possible. Only then did he take off his sunglasses and his hat. She wondered for a moment if he was still wearing that silly wig or if he'd started dying his hair like a normal person, but that was the least of her concerns. His mortified expression made Renge shake her head in disapproval.

"You're so complicated," she chided him. "Why don't you just wear sunscreen?"

"I _do_," he replied, suddenly defensive. "If I didn't, I wouldn't ever leave home."

"Oh. That's…" Renge somehow managed to stop herself from saying _a little pathetic_. "None of my business, I guess."

Nekozawa stared at her for an instant, almost as if he'd expected her to go with her first thought. But he didn't say anything about it, and the moment passed.

She must have been staring, too, because he gave her a confused look before he spoke.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You look weird," she replied without thinking. "I mean, you _don't_ look weird, and that's… even stranger. I keep expecting to see that ridiculous puppet of yours."

He smiled a little and rested his chin on his oddly naked hand.

"Ah, well. I have a _real_ cat now."

"A black one?"

"Of course," he said, and she couldn't tell if he was being serious or just joking. He had always liked that kind of things, true, but he also liked pretending and exaggerating. She vaguely wondered how much of that was left in him now.

"I hope you haven't named the poor thing Beelzenef."

"That would be silly," he said. "His name is Vlad."

"… Vlad," she repeated, incredulous. He was wearing a perfectly natural smile now.

"Well, _Vladimir_."

She had to agree that at least it was better than Beelzenef, and then their conversation moved to the much more interesting topic of gossip about their old classmates. Although he didn't have much to say about that, _she_ did, and Renge had always loved to hear herself talk. It was nice to have someone around who actually understood what she was talking about. She told him about everything she'd heard recently: how Tamaki and Haruhi were planning to get married once she graduated from law school, Kyouya's latest business success, the twins' new fashion line. She talked about how Mori kept winning one kendo tournament after the other, and Honey planned to get involved in the cuisine of the Suoh family's hotel chain.

He listened politely to all of her ramblings, only making a few small comments here and there, and he did seem interested. But, once she finally stopped, he pointed out that she still hadn't said anything about _herself_.

"About me?" she asked, surprised. "Ah, well… there aren't many interesting things to say. I moved back here with my family once I finished school. And I've been studying fashion design, but… well, I'm not really sure that's what I _really_ want to do. There are many other things I like, too. But I guess I can't do everything at the same time, right?"

She laughed a bit, feeling honestly enthusiastic about it all. He smiled, too; apparently her displays were amusing somehow, but Renge couldn't bring herself to feel offended. She was in too much of a good mood.

"But you do like it, don't you?" he asked. "Even if you aren't sure…"

"Of course! There's no point in studying something I don't even like," she replied, as if that was obvious (which, to be honest, she thought it was). "And how about you? You must be out of the university by now… What did you study?"

"Business management."

Renge tried her best not to stare. She wasn't sure of what she had been expecting to hear, but it certainly wasn't _that_. It sounded so boring, so… ordinary. Nekozawa was many things, not all of them good, but she was quite sure that he'd never been ordinary.

But she didn't get the chance to ask how he had come to that decision. Although she hadn't really noticed just for how long they'd been sitting there, it was obvious that _he_ had; he had been subtly retreating as far from the window as possible, and by now he was practically squirming between the wall behind him and a treacherous ray of sunlight that kept getting closer.

"I guess I should be going now," he sighed in defeat. Only then did Renge notice something that, now that she thought about it, should have been obvious from the beginning.

"What were you doing out on a sunny day, anyway?"

"I wasn't going far," he said, tilting his head. He seemed almost surprised by her concern. "I was just leaving the office. My chauffeur is waiting around the corner."

"I see… You're here on business, then?" she asked. "When do you return to Japan?"

Nekozawa blinked, confused, and then he shook his head.

"Ah, no," he said, smiling a little. "I've been living here in France for two years now."

"Then we'll definitely meet again!" said Renge. It wasn't just an expression; it was a _fact_. She was sure of that.

And she discovered, not without a little surprise, that it made her happy.


End file.
